Waukesha Election Officials Brace For Federal Voter Fraud Investigation; Recommend Investigators "Study The Downtown One-Way System First"

WAUKESHA — The Waukesha Election Commission held an emergency briefing Tuesday evening to prepare for anticipated inquiries tied to the Trump administration's newly announced investigation into alleged voter fraud in Wisconsin. By the end of the two-hour, 40-minute session, commissioners had spent roughly 90 minutes of it discussing what Commission Chair Deborah Lewinski, 58, described as the county's "more pressing infrastructure-based voter suppression": the downtown one-way street grid.

The commission voted 6-1 to issue a 14-page memo, distributed to commissioners Wednesday morning, recommending that federal investigators study traffic patterns on Broadway, St. Paul Avenue, and College Avenue before conducting a single interview with election staff. The memo's cover page describes the request as "a matter of investigative sequencing" rather than a deflection.

"Study The Grid First"

Lewinski, who has chaired the commission since 2022, said she did not dispute the federal government's right to investigate but wanted investigators to understand what she called the county's actual documented obstacle to voter turnout. "Nobody is disenfranchising anybody on purpose down here," Lewinski said. "But if you can't find City Hall, and I promise you a federal investigator will not be able to find City Hall on the first try, that's a turnout problem I can point to. I have data. I don't have data on fraud, because to my knowledge there isn't any."

The memo cites internal poll-worker logs from the August primary showing an average of 2.6 passes past a downtown polling location before a first-time visitor successfully parked and entered, a figure the commission's report attributes to the block-by-block direction changes on Broadway and St. Paul Avenue. It does not cite any comparable figure related to fraud, a gap Lewinski said was intentional. "We didn't want to pad the document," she said.

"If you can't find City Hall, and I promise you a federal investigator will not be able to find City Hall on the first try, that's a turnout problem I can point to."

— Deborah Lewinski, Waukesha Election Commission Chair

One Dissenting Vote

Commissioner Ray Dietrich cast the lone vote against the memo, saying he supported the underlying traffic concerns but worried that leading with the one-way grid in a federal fraud briefing "sends a message we're not taking the actual ask seriously." Dietrich proposed a shorter, two-page version limiting the traffic material to an appendix. The motion to shorten the memo failed 5-2.

Lewinski said the commission has fielded no formal contact yet from federal investigators, only public statements from the administration naming Wisconsin as a subject of the inquiry. She said the commission wanted its materials ready "so we're not scrambling," and that County Clerk staff have been asked to compile parking citation data near polling locations going back to the 2024 general election in case it is requested.

Downtown Grid, Again

The one-way system has been a recurring subject of city business this year, including a City Clerk's office advisory issued in July recommending early voters budget extra time "for the block." Public Works has not proposed changes to the grid's direction pattern, which flips block to block along Broadway and has been in place, according to city records, since before any current commissioner was appointed.

Ned England, 70, of Backslide Way, who said he watched Tuesday's meeting on the city's public access channel, said he was not surprised the grid came up. "I've lived here 70 years and I still take the wrong turn onto St. Paul about once a month," England said. "If the federal government wants to investigate something, they should investigate why nobody's fixed that intersection by the old furniture store."

Councilman Gary Puchalski, who does not sit on the Election Commission but said he was briefed on the memo Wednesday, called it "not wrong, exactly," and said he planned to ask whether the city could route any federal attention toward securing state funding for a downtown signage overhaul. "If they're already sending people to look at Broadway, we might as well get a grant out of it," Puchalski said.

The Election Commission's next regular meeting is scheduled for Sept. 16, where Lewinski said she expects an update on whether federal investigators have made contact and, separately, an update from Public Works on whether any signage changes are under consideration ahead of the November election.